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INFORMATION
EVENING
Young Kiwis walk the talk on climate change
By CARLY TAWHIAO
Talk climate: Mechanical engineer Kirk Serpes will be representing New Zealand youth at the 16th annual international climate change
conference but needs the support of young residents to get his message across.
Photo: JASON OXENHAM
A group of passionate young
Kiwis will have the chance to
influence international cli-
mate talks.
Mechanical engineer Kirk
Serpes is one of 12 New Zea-
landers selected to attend the
2010 United Nations Climate
Change Conference in
Cancun, Mexico, in Decem-
ber.
It will be the second time
the 25-year-old Lynfield resi-
dent has been part of New
Zealand's youth delegation to
the event. In 2009 he
attended the conference
which was held in Denmark.
It was absolutely incred-
ible. It was the biggest gath-
ering of world leaders since
World War Two which says a
lot about how big an issue
this is,'' he says.
It's not a non-issue any
more. There are a lot of hopes
that following the summit
there will be a lot of changes.
It upskills people.''
In Mexico, the dozen
delegates will be engaging
with New Zealand leaders to
encourage strong climate pol-
icy.Mr Serpes says they will
also be teaming up with other
international youth dele-
gations and non-govern-
mental organisations to push
for the creation of a fair,
ambitious and binding inter-
national deal on climate
change.
There's a lot going on out
there with delegates from all
these small countries and
island states.
We're part of a global com-
munity trying to make things
happen.''
As part of the campaign to
engage youth, the delegation
is creating a 10-metre by
12-metre silver fern banner
complete with a dozen three-
metre-long fronds.
Youth groups throughout
the country are being encour-
aged to sign the fronds with
messages about what they
want from their world leaders
at the climate change talks
and what they're personally
doing as responsible citizens.
Putting messages on the
frond about what young
people want and what they're
doing makes them take res-
ponsibility as well,'' Mr
Serpes says.
It's about local action too,
not just what the government
is doing.''
The delegates will hold
workshops about climate
change with groups of young
people between now and
December in Auckland, Wel-
lington, Dunedin, Christ-
church and Nelson.
The fronds will then be
brought together on the ban-
ner which will be displayed at
the conference and presented
to the New Zealand govern-
ment.
We want to attract as
many youth groups as we can
in our local regions to sign
the fronds. Young people are
most at risk of climate change
and it's not too late to con-
vince their parents and
grandparents that they can
do something about it,'' Mr
Serpes says.
They can sit there and
deny it all they want but in
actual fact it's happening.
Essentially it's our respons-
ibility to take action.''
Email nzyouthdelegation
@gmail.com. or visit www.
youthdelegation.org.nz for
more information about the
fern campaign or contribute to
its fronds.